LYNNWOOD—Kirkland-based FairFax Behavioral Health expanded its outpatient operations to Lynnwood Friday, opening a brand-new facility that will expand access to behavioral health services for individuals and families in South Snohomish County, providing additional options for people seeking support for mental health and substance use concerns.
Branches Lynnwood provides specialized mental health, substance use, and neurodivergent affirming outpatient services for adolescents and adults. Designed to meet the growing needs of the Snohomish County community, our programs combine evidence-based treatment, compassionate support, and flexible scheduling, in-person and virtual treatment options, to help individuals and families thrive while maintaining work, school, and family commitments.
The new six group room, four offices, facility will provide Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) and Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) services. It will also offer telehealth and diagnosis on-site.
Fairfax Behavioral Health held a ribbon-cutting ceremony commemorating the opening on Friday, October 2, where CEO Patrick Wilder, who comes from a social worker background, reminisced on his first outpatient clinic he worked in – which he described as basically a closet with no windows where all the nurses used to go out and smoke.
He remembered thinking at the time that patients deserved better and deserved a better space. Now, with the opening of FairFax Behavioral Health’s new Lynnwood outpatient clinic he said it feels like a true “full circle moment.”
“For many years people have come to know FairFax as primary an inpatient organization. We’ve provided for the Seattle metro area for 90+ years, provided inpatient services. Our Lynnwood branches really start to represent our movement and exposure into the outpatient space,” said Wilder.
Washington Representative Lauren Davis, who shared a few words follows Wilder’s remarks, also had a full-circle moment Friday as her best friend, Ricky – the namesake of “Ricky’s Law”, which helps those with life-threatening addiction – was detained at FairFax in Kirkland about 15 years ago. Just a couple years later, after dipping her toes in the behavioral health and substance abuse field, she approached FairFax to sponsor an event focused on suicide prevention.
What stands out about FairFax, to Rep. Davis, is their “breath of continuing care” – serving patients across their lifespan from adolescents, to adults, to geriatric population in multiple counties and multiple cities. That and the extensive list of services, from withdrawal management to detox services, and offering telehealth to meet patients where they are, and many more.
FairFax also offers inpatient substance use services for the Medicare population, which Rep. Davis says is “basically extinct” in the state of Washington.
Rep. Davis previously worked under Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington, who famously invented Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which she explained is “basically very effective Jedi Mind Tricks” for oneself.
However, to find a clinic that offers it, she continued, you “basically have to win the lottery.” FairFax, on the other hand, offers DBT for both their partial hospitalization and its IOP program.
Lastly, Rep. Davis said there are so many mental health providers who have stopped taking insurance in the State of Washington but FairFax has remained accepting several providers.
“It’s just imperative that we get people access to care when they need it, when they want it. For mental health that can actually mean averting crises, if you can provide care immediately, but for substance abuse it’s particularly prudent. In the SUD world we have a window of willingness and that window is fleeting. It’s when that person is having a glimmer of hope or desperation to seek care and if they can’t get in and start treatment, that window eclipses,” said Rep. Davis. “The reality is that the end of addiction is not in fact jails, and institutions, and death, it’s hope, it’s recovery, it’s dreams renewed, it’s families rebuilt, it’s amends made, and for so many people in our community that’s going to start here in these doors.”
The new Fairfax facility resides in Rep. Davis’ legislative district – the 39th.
Also attendance at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was Washington State Representatives Carolyn Eslick, and Strom Peterson, Lynnwood Mayor George Hurst, Lynnwood City Council members David Parshall and Nick Coelho, Lynnwood Police Chief Cole Langdon, and Edmonds Police Chief Loi Dawkins.
“When you think about FairFax you think about somebody in the lowest moments of their life. They’re in acute crises and the FairFax jumps in and meeting that population where they’re at. But FairFax can offer so much more,” said Laurel Schilling, Chief Operating Officer for FairFax Behavioral Health. “By rebranding out outpatient branches it gives us an opportunity for people of Washington State to say FairFax is more. It’s about growth, it’s about recovery, and it’s about sustained wellness – going beyond that acute crises.”
The new FairFax Behavioral Health clinic in Lynnwood will begin accepting patients for its Individualized Education Program (IEP) at the end of October, beginning with just six staff members on site though the goal is eventually a dozen.
According to Tyler Laney, Interim Clinical Director at Fairfax, once the clinic is fully operational it will likely serve 30-40 clients at any given time during operation hours and with many more in its virtual program spanning into the evening.
The beginning goal for the facility is to focus on behavioral health and its neurodivergent patients. Focusing on the neurodivergent population is something unique to the Lynnwood branch, where it will redevelop its DBT program to be neurodivergent friendly and even offer specific rooms which can offer both low stimulation, or high stimulation, depending on what a client needs.
Fairfax Behavioral Health Branches Lynnwood is located at 20700 44th Ave. W in Lynnwood, Washington.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
